Sections

Sixteen schools coordinate campaign to leave Canadian Federation of Students

Photo: CFS

Ethan Cox

Published: September 4, 2013 - 6:10 PM

Updated: September 24, 2013 - 4:30 PM

The release below was sent to media across Canada on Wednesday morning. This defederation campaign — in which more than a dozen schools are hoping to end their membership in the national student lobbying group — is the latest in a series of similar campaigns which have seen membership in the organization plummet, as accusations of corruption and anti-democratic tactics multiply.

In 2009 all Quebec members of the organization, save for Dawson College, left the federation. Many of them are still trying to do so, since the CFS isn’t a big fan of recognizing the results of defederation referendums. The Concordia Student Union is still suing the Federation to force them to recognize the result of that 2010 vote. Most of those campaigns were launched after CFS employees or campaigners were implicated in several cases of electoral fraud.

Don’t be fooled. In my experience the CFS is a top-down, bureaucratic institution which spends most of its time viciously attacking critics, and fighting off any attempt to reform its own anti-democratic processes. In this defederation, as in all of them, it is the architect of its own misfortune.

In Quebec, we saw first hand the lengths the CFS would go to to maintain their hold on power. We also saw, last year, what a truly democratic and open student movement looks like during the enormous protests against the provincial tuition hikes. Far from advancing the cause of students, the CFS occupies space other organizations need to organize themselves, and does nothing with it.

Small wonder then, that once again the impetus for this campaign comes from Quebec. We know how to fight, and how to win, and the CFS is doing it wrong.

I know many, many good people who have been involved with the CFS, including decent and dedicated provincial reps I met on my speaking tour last year with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. They, and their efforts, will continue to be undermined by a bloated bureaucracy in Ottawa which cares for nothing but maintaining their own power and hawking profitable services to member unions.

I understand that for those less well versed in the Federation’s history, the temptation is to argue that the infrastructure is valuable and should be maintained. That now is the time to seize control of the Federation and make it into a functional organization. That to defederate is to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Sadly, the truth is that this has all been tried, more times than you can count. The organization has been built, and its very bylaws and regulations painstakingly crafted by staff members whose tenures are measured in decades, to ensure that it is completely immune to efforts to reform or democratize it.

This is no longer a student organization, but a sinecure for middle-aged staffers who make fat salaries and do nothing of substance for students.

Repeated efforts to reform the organization have failed. It is time to blow it up. Only then will the space be liberated to allow a real grassroots, democratic student movement, built on the Quebec model, to flourish.

***

Students Across Canada Petition to Leave Canadian Federation of Students

September 4, 2013 – College and University students across the country are beginning the process to end their membership with national lobby group, the Canadian Federation of Students. This initiative to “defederate” includes petitions among students at Dawson College (Local 108), as well as the largest schools remaining in the Federation: the University of Toronto, York University, and Ryerson University. Over 15 student associations are currently taking part and this number may grow throughout the fall. Their aim is to end the Canadian Federation of Students’ control over local campus affairs, but also to begin discussions about alternatives for provincial and national organizing that keep decision-making power in the hands of students.

“Many of us are longtime student organizers and have seen students attempt to reform the CFS from within for decades, but to no avail. We are taking these steps to defederate because of our dedication to students and to the student movement,” said Ashleigh Ingle, a graduate student at the University of Toronto. “Students are realizing that their interests are not served by the Canadian Federation of Students. We are not walking away from organizing at the national and provincial level; we are creating the space for that to happen effectively.”

The Federation has recently lost traction in a number of provinces, with its control loosening on many campuses nationwide. This latest mass defection from the CFS could leave them without representation in British Columbia, Manitoba and Québec. Combined with their lack of representation in Alberta and much of the Maritimes, this significantly challenges the idea that the CFS represents Canadian students.

“Every student – from every part of the political spectrum – has a reason to want to leave the Canadian Federation of Students. For us, we have come to this decision because of what we feel are ineffective organizing practices and lobbying efforts, a bloated bureaucracy, questionable financial decisions, and low standards of democratic processes. We believe students deserve better,” says Brendan Lehman, a student from Laurentian University.

Some students plan to create new organizing bodies directed by principles of free association and direct membership control, the founding congress of which is planned for 2014. The organizers tell us that “the proper approach to student organizing involves limiting dependence on members’ money while maximizing student decision-making in the fight for free public, high quality education. But even if students have no desire to join a new organizing body, they should still consider terminating their membership in the CFS. It’s time to take a stand. If you want to start a petition on your campus or help out with an existing one, email timetomobilize@gmail.com. It is time to defend the interests of students; it is time to say no to CFS.”